Appetite

Regulation/Legal

In United Kingdom, an independent regulatory body named Office of Communications (Ofcom) has released guidelines for food advertising targeting children (Ofm, 2007). TV advertising regulation has been used as a tool by various countries to restrict the advertisers from marketing certain food products (Ofm, 2007). The forms of regulation ranging from outright bans or defined restrictions using legislation to non-binding frameworks developed for industry self-regulation. Banning TV advertisements that affects the children may seem the most direct way to prevent children from being exposed to unhealthy advertisement and is an effective solution to childhood obesity (Manganello & Fishbein, 2008). The primary assumption of most content analysis studies is that media content has effect on audiences (Manganello & Fishbein, 2008).Inadequate information portrayed in media may reflect less transparency and negative financial consequences (Christenson, 1982). From the Journal article, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had stated as children being “uniquely vulnerable” and not able to differentiate meaning and content of the advertisements, thus any form of persuading, is deceptive and misleading (Pomeranz, 2010).

Social

Advertising Standard Authority states that rules governing social responsibility in advertising already exist and will continue to apply restricting pressure to purchase, promotion of an unhealthy diet such as high content in fat, salt and sugar, and lifestyle (Authority, 2013).56%-63% of all commercials screened during peak timing, 80%-100% of the advertisements featured food high in fat, sugar or salt. (Alliance, 1995) Also, advertisements on fast foods or low nutritional food are mostly advertised to children (Kotz., 1994). Through government legislation of compulsory nutrition labels, companies would require to list out the content and to diversify their menu to include healthier options. (Authority, 2013) To reach to their...